angry conversions part one: the plan

i’ll be the first to admit that my relationship with games workshop is not what would be termed a healthy one. their sometime inconsistently written rules, inflexible formats, infrequent and confusing erratas, and disregard of hobby goodwill occasionally drives me to swear “never again, goddammit.”

but like the protagonist from a lifetime television movie, i keep coming back for more.

and an entry in the chaos space marines codex is yet another example of how gw is pissing me off yet again: csm havocs.

and here are the reasons for my ire:

• havocs, as heavy weapon troops can customize their loadout, but the box set only gives you one of each heavy weapon: lascannon, missile launcher, heavy bolter, and autocannon. i loves me some autocannon. i want four in a squad. this means spending $180 if i purchase only csm havoc boxes.
• if the models were still plastic, it wouldn’t be that much of an issue as i’d have plenty of customization options adding the extra models into other squads. but they’re finecast models now. meaning that even if i were purchase four boxes of havocs, all of my models are going to lack the dynamic posing that the plastics gave us hobbyists.
• and finally, i would also be able to order extra havoc autocannons through a bitz service if the models were injection molded plastic, and no one’s moving finecast csm autocannons on ebay.

so i’m putting my skills as a hobbyist to work. if i am going to spend a lot of money on csm havocs, they are going to be original, and look bad ass.

i want you...

...to serve papa nurgle!

i’ve already started a death guard force using the forge world conversion kits, so i want to keep that look, but i also want to play with it a bit. i want this squad to look like it’s part of the original death guard legion and to get that thirty-first millennium look, i’m going to use maxmini biohazard backpacks.

i love the way these backpacks look.

i’ll have to add a bit of green stuff here and there to get the pestilential look just right, but a light touch combined with a bit of drilling, cutting, and some clever painting should make it pay off.

for the autocannons, the plan is to use the chaos heavy bolter as the base mechanism for the weapon, and convert it up with the defiler autocannon barrels, and dragon forge’s ammo belt.

big guns need big bullets. large caliber dragon forge ammo belts

the shopping list for my conversions looks like this:

csm heavy bolter bitz x 2 - $7.98 (i’ve already got two in my bitz box)

csm defiler twin-linked autocannon bitz x 2 - $13.98

maxmini biohazard backpack set x 2 - $16.98

dragon forge ammo belt x 1 - $6

forge world death guard conversion set - $35

csm squad - $37.25

total: $117.19 (a savings of about 35% even with the forge world kits!)

that’s the plan. the second part of this series will focus on converting up the autocannons.

the csm havoc image is property of games workshop, used without permission
the death guard image is property of little mens
the maxmini biohazard backpack image is property of maxmini
the ammo belt image is property of dragon forge 

don't hesitate, visit maxmini and dragon forge for more cool stuff.